Wednesday, April 19, 2023

“Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish…” (Jonah 2: 1, The Message Bible)

                I prefer my fish pan-fried in garlic butter and in my belly; not praying from the belly of a fish.

                Praying from the belly of a fish as Jonah did becomes a metaphor for being caught in some deep, perilous, painful, dire set of circumstances from which we seemingly can’t get out. Maybe you are in debt up to your eyebrows. Maybe you are in a bad relationship. Maybe you have worries which keep you awake at night. Perhaps, your health is letting you down. The list is endless, but you get the idea.

                Something has swallowed us whole. We’re in too deep.  We can’t see a way out. We are floundering. (Sorry, bad fish joke; couldn’t resist.)

                Sometimes, but not always, we have nobody to blame but ourselves for getting ourselves in these pickled herrings. (Yikes, I did it again.)  Jonah ran away from God. He didn’t want to listen to or obey God. He thought he could escape from God and hide from his responsibilities.

                I get it really. There were lots of times in my pastoral ministry when I really didn’t want to do the task at hand. For example, for the longest while, I did not enjoy doing weekday services in seniors’ homes.  They seemed pointless and it seemed hard to engage with so many of the congregants. I did the services out of duty, but no sense of great love. It is a story for another time about an experience that totally changed my attitude, but, after that experience, I gladly served these occasions. Let’s just say that Jesus strongly showed me a better way.

                God is going to find us and get our attention. Sometimes, we have to pray from the belly of our fishes to figure it out.

The second chapter of Jonah contains the prayer that Jonah lifted up while he was contemplating his predicament from the belly of that humongous fish. It is quite an amazing prayer when you consider the circumstances. Perhaps, one could argue that it was the prayer of a desperate man, but, even so, it is a very honest self-assessment of his predicament and a re-affirmation of his faith and trust in God.

“From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’” To get out of the dark bellies we are in, we need to understand that we need help. We can’t go it alone. In this case, Jonah needed God’s intervention. We all need God to listen to our prayers for help, guidance, wisdom, encouragement, and support.   

We also must admit where we have gone wrong and have complicated the situation through our own actions and sins. “Ocean gripped me by the throat. The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight. My head was all tangled in seaweed.”   We get tangled up in our mistakes, selfishness and  bad decisions.

It is never too late to remember that God is on our side. “When my life was slipping away, I remembered God…”

Here comes the strange part. “But I’m worshiping you, God, calling out in thanksgiving!” Thanksgiving? I’m in the belly of a fish, Lord. It’s dark and it stinks and I am nothing but fish-food. What I am to be thankful for?  Maybe, it is just the fact that I am still alive, or that God is “out there” and is listening. God is not done with me yet. So, I find some grace in my moment of failure and distress. “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”  (1 Thessalonians 5: 16 -18, TMB) I know this is hard, but it is also part of how we get out of those bellies we are in. We look for resurrection.

Finally, the prayer expresses Jonah’s desire to participate willingly in God’s call on his life and gifts. “And I’ll do what I promised I’d do! Salvation belongs to God!”  If we are looking for easy answers, simple rescue, or salvation, we might have to wait a while. But when we are ready to respond, take responsibility, act out our faith, take risks and face the future, “Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.” 

Thank God. We’re out.

It still isn’t very pretty, I’ll admit, and there is still always much to do. He couldn’t just sit on the shore, glad that was all over, and pick seaweed out of his nose. There is still Nineveh ahead; work to be done.  We are all called to acts of faith, love, compassion.

So, yes, brush the seaweed off your shoulders, get off the beach, ignore the fact that you smell like fish and move forward.

“Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 6:11, TMB)

Dale